1876-04-23: (Pierre Boisrond-Canal Becomes President, One of the Most Influential Mulatto Politicians of the Late Nineteenth Century, Whose Career Would Span…

1876-04-23: (Pierre Boisrond-Canal Becomes President, One of the Most Influential Mulatto Politicians of the Late Nineteenth Century, Whose Career Would Span Three Separate Stints as Head of State Across Twenty-Six Years): On April 23, 1876, Pierre Boisrond-Canal assumed the presidency of Haiti following Domingue’s flight. Born on June 12, 1832, into a wealthy mulatto family in Les Cayes, Boisrond-Canal had served as a military officer under Geffrard and as a senator from 1870 to 1875. He had been forced to take refuge in the U.S. ambassador’s residence for six months in 1875 to escape Domingue’s government, eventually being evacuated to Jamaica on an American warship. The National Assembly replaced the 1874 constitution with the 1867 constitution, limiting his presidential term to four years. Tensions between Black and mulatto elites intensified during his administration, and after a series of riots in Port-au-Prince, Boisrond-Canal resigned on July 17, 1879, and went into exile in Jamaica. He would return to serve as provisional president twice more, in 1888 and 1902, one of the few Haitian political figures whose career bridged the chaos of the entire late nineteenth century.